Dual Nationality and spouse visa questions

[mistral]

Hi guys,

First of all, let me thank you all for your contributions to this forum. It is genuinley very helpful to have it!

Here is my situation...

* Got married to a Russian National (i.e. non-EU) a month ago in my home country (EU)
* I have EU nationality and have also just received British one as well

The goal : is to bring my lovely wife to London asap.

Option 1 : I am aware of the spouse visa requirements for a British partner (a lot of documents required, as I am a contractor in UK and to proove my income, I need to submit 20 documents...)
Option 2 : I am aware of the EEA route

Questions that I hope you can help me with :

Now that I have received british nationality, can I still apply via Option 2 or is this no longer possible ?

What are the disadvantages of Option 2 vs Option 1, in case I can still use Option 2 ?

Many thanks in advance

[SouthWest1]

i think you can still use option 2 EEA route

Option 1: a lot of papers , min. income and few hundreds of pounds to get her over
Advantage: if granted, after 2 yrs she can apply for ILR then a year after British Citizenship.

Option 2: recent payslips to prove u are exercising treaty rights,some other proofs like bank statements, bills, council tax...etc( few documents to prove u live here); then Form EEA2 which costs £55.
disadvantage: have to wait for 5 years to grant PR and that you have been exercising treaty rights during the 5 years of her residency in UK.

bear in mind, you can not switch from option 2 to 1 once a residence card is issued. the only loophole is once she is granted a PR , she then can apply for British nationality without waiting for 1 year as she is married to a BC.

also, she needs to apply for a Family permit from Russia to come over here. would suggest to send her as many evidence as you can along with a cover letter stating she will be joining you in UK as your Spouse.

overwhelming info but hope it answers your questions.
also Gurus, please advise if above is incorrect!

[Jambo]

A few corrections:

- option 1 doesn't give 2 years route to settlement any more. It will take 5 years for ILR.

- option 2 now that you are British is not trivial. The HO would argue the EEA route doesn't apply to you any more but their view is questionable. You would probably need to take the HO to court. It would have been better if you have waited with the British citizenship application until you brought your family over.

[SouthWest1]

thanks Jambo. thought min residency requirement has increased to 5 yrs hence asked for your comments.

[mistral]

Thank you SouthWest1 / Jambo! Very useful information!

I was told that if she comes on EEA visa and then I get the British citizenship, the EEA visa will no longer be valid and that she will have to leave the country and apply for a "spouse visa of British person" from abroad...This is why I decided to hurry up with the application for British nationality...hmm...

Ok. Given the circumstances, I guess that we will first try to get a "spouse of a British person" visa...If this starts to become too cumbersome in terms of procedures / time, I will probably return the British citizenship and re-apply using the EEA route...Not ideal obviously, but dont want to wait for 6 months to get it sorted...

Thank you once again and have a lovely weekend guys!

[dalebutt]

Your chances of success using the EEA route is very negligible, I woundn't even delve into that if I were you, except that you might be prepared for a lengthy battle, if you meet the requirement under the immigration rules that might be your best option at this time, if not you are better off considering exercising your treaty rights in Ireland for a short period and using Singh to return to the UK.

[Jambo]

I was told

Who told you that? This is not entirely correct.

[mistral]

One of these immigration advisory companies...The message was : make up our mind if you want to apply for a British nationality, as if your wife comes on a EEA visa, and you then become British, she will have to leave the UK and apply for a "spouse visa of a British national"...

dalebutt - Yes, it sounds like we better try directly the non-EEA route...Hopefully I will have all the documents in place soon...

One question on the required docs : do we need to present birth certificates or is it enough to show a passport (my EEA one) or any other ID that has the birth date ?

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

One of these immigration advisory companies...The message was : make up our mind if you want to apply for a British nationality, as if your wife comes on a EEA visa, and you then become British, she will have to leave the UK and apply for a "spouse visa of a British national"...

I would suggest that the advice received was not correct.

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

Hi guys,

First of all, let me thank you all for your contributions to this forum. It is genuinley very helpful to have it!

Here is my situation...

* Got married to a Russian National (i.e. non-EU) a month ago in my home country (EU)
* I have EU nationality and have also just received British one as well

The goal : is to bring my lovely wife to London asap.

Option 1 : I am aware of the spouse visa requirements for a British partner (a lot of documents required, as I am a contractor in UK and to proove my income, I need to submit 20 documents...)
Option 2 : I am aware of the EEA route

Questions that I hope you can help me with :

Now that I have received british nationality, can I still apply via Option 2 or is this no longer possible ?

What are the disadvantages of Option 2 vs Option 1, in case I can still use Option 2 ?

Many thanks in advance

You could argue that neither of these statements applies to you.

1. Article 3(1) of Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the right of citizens of the Union and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States amending Regulation (EEC) No 1612/68 and repealing Directives 64/221/EEC, 68/360/EEC, 72/194/EEC, 73/148/EEC, 75/34/EEC, 75/35/EEC, 90/364/EEC, 90/365/EEC and 93/96/EEC, must be interpreted as meaning that that directive is not applicable to a Union citizen who has never exercised his right of free movement, who has always resided in a Member State of which he is a national and who is also a national of another Member State.

2. Article 21 TFEU is not applicable to a Union citizen who has never exercised his right of free movement, who has always resided in a Member State of which he is a national and who is also a national of another Member State, provided that the situation of that citizen does not include the application of measures by a Member State that would have the effect of depriving him of the genuine enjoyment of the substance of the rights conferred by virtue of his status as a Union citizen or of impeding the exercise of his right of free movement and residence within the territory of the Member States.

The statements are from the McCarthy judgement.

The UK regulations as written, would preclude a British dual national from benefiting from directive 2004/38/ec, but that does not mean that they could not be challenged.

[vinny]

The Surinder Singh route for family members of British citizens continues to be possible.

[mistral]

Thank you for the information guys! It sounds like it might be useful, in my particular case, to consult with a company specialised in this type of immigration issues.

Can anybody recommend me one that is based in london ? I assume that it might be against the rules of the forum to post recommendations, so please send me a pm instead.

Thank you in advance and have a great week!

[mistral]

Reposted as original post was rerouted to here ; ) ...

Hi Guys,
I need to make a decision…here is the brief story :
* Originally I am an EU national
* I have just received a letter from UK BA that my request for british citizenship has been approved. I have not yet attended the ceremony though.
* I want to apply for a spouse visa for my wife ASAP (non-EU, living abroad)

Here are my questions :

* Is my EU passport required as part of the spouse visa process ? If not, can I use my “certificate of british citizenship” as proof of age ?

* Again, given that the priority is to bring my wife in London, I am even Ok to not get the british citizenship now, so that I can use the EEA route which seems easier than the “wife of a British person” one….If I don’t attend the ceremony after the 90 days deadline, is this considered as renouncing the British Citizenship or not ? If I do that, would this compromise my chances if I apply again for one at a later stage ?

Many thanks!

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

I think you want to ask yourself why do you crave British citizenship. What's it worth to you? You appear to have gone to a lot of trouble to obtain it in the first instance.

Did your obtaining of British citizenship cause you to renounce your original one?

The regulations as written would make it difficult for you to apply as an EU national (Singh excepted). You could argue that the regulations do not properly reflect the McCarthy judgement. You may find that winning a case could take a long time. I would think that you would have a case.

I suspect you obtained British citizenship by living in the UK as an EU citizen for a long period of time that you've probably obtained PR. If so, you would choose to use the UK immigration rules as a settled person.

The EU route would have been a lot simpler than the UK immigration rules route.

[mistral]

Hi EUsmileWEallsmile (funny nickname btw!;-))...

You are right..I got the UK citizenship because I was automatically entitled to one, because I have been living here for more than 6 years etc
It also resolves a number of practical issues related to travelling outside of EU, proof of my status in UK etc etc

No, I didnt loose my original citizenship.

If we go back to my questions though :

* does anybody know if the "certificate of british citizenship" can be used to satisfy the "proof of age" requirement ? Again, the reason I am asking this question is because I dont have yet a british passport and If I apply for one, I will have to send UK BA my EU passport. I want to apply for the spouse visa asap i.e. dont want to wait to receive the british passport + the returned eu one

Thanks!

[EUsmileWEallsmile]

Your EU passport proves what age you are, as does I imagine your birth certificate, driver's licence, etc, etc.

[SouthWest1]

[quote="mistral"]Reposted as original post was rerouted to here ; ) ...

If I don’t attend the ceremony after the 90 days deadline, is this considered as renouncing the British Citizenship or not ? If I do that, would this compromise my chances if I apply again for one at a later stage ?

in fact, you did not obtain a British nationality yet. so practically you are still an EU citizen and can start the process for your wife on that basis.
also, if you did not attend/ arrange the oath ceremony within 3 months, then your application is considered void and have to apply again.
will it compromise your chances in the future, i would say yes as they would ask and given the reason you mentioned above, will definitely ring some bells.

Again, its your call

[mistral]

Thank you for your feedback guys! Appreciated! I have decided to contract an advisor company for the application, in the hope that I can get/keep the Brisith citizenship and at the same time have a fast approval (no rejections) of my wife's visa.

Thank you once again!

[vinny]

Hi Guys,

I hope that you are all well!

I am happy to report that my wife got a spouse visa in record time - applied last Tuesday and received it today - from Dubai! This forum has been very useful in terms of establishing a list of documents to submit, especially given that my case standard : became British citizen a couple of weeks ago, working as a contractor for my own Company etc...So, if you have any questions let me know and I will try to help!

One question : is it normal that the visa is flagged as being a "post flight" one ? What does this mean in practical terms ?

[vinny]

No. Not normal.

See also Mistake.

[mistral]

Thank you for the info Vinny! I will check once again with her, but it definitely sounds like a mistake was made...I hope that it will be easy to correct it, if confirmed!

[mistral]

Hi Guys,

We have sent an email to the Abu Dhabi embassy explainign why we think that the visa that was given to my wife might be incorrect....i.e. instead of VISA SPOUSE/CP Name, it is VISA POST FLIGHT SPOUSE/CP Name...

After calling them, they denied receiving the e-mail. We resent it. After calling them today, they acknowledged receiving the second e-mail and advised my wife that they will answer within 2 weeks! How difficult could it be for the ECO to take a look at the original visa request and compare it to what they have given us?!

Anyway....My questions are :

* Do you think that my wife will have a problem entering the UK on the current visa ? If that is OK, she can then try to change it once she is in the UK....

* Is it normal for this type of requests to take 2 weeks for initial feedback ? Do you think that we should escalate it and raise a formal complaint etc ?

Any advice is appreciated !

[mistral]

JUst a quick update on my situation :

* the embassy replied to our e-mail / call acknowledging the error in the type of visa they gave my wife

* the embassy "invited" my wife to the embassy in Abu Dhabi (2h by car from Dubai) and put the correct visa in her passport on the spot

So, it sounds like we are now sorted! It was painful, but at the same time it only took us one week from the submission of the appliction to the reception of the correct visa!

Thanks and have a nice day !